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With Dev having all night classes this semester, weeknight dinner is a real struggle.

Tonight I decided to throw together a quick marinara to go on some pasta. I started by mincing garlic and throwing it in a pan with olive oil and some red pepper flakes. After it started warming up, I added dried oregano and some Greek Seasoning. Anchovy paste went in next. I let all that sizzle for a few minutes, then added a can of crushed tomatoes, some onion powder (I didn't have a real one or I'd have added that at the beginning with the garlic). Lastly, I added a few tablespoons of sugar to counteract the acidity of the tomatoes.

I boiled some penne and tossed it together with some parmesan cheese at the very end. Throw in a piece of home made bread, toasted, and I had dinner.

Devin loves pasta, so as he sat and practically licked his plate, it made me laugh, because he claims to HATE anchovies. He hates them in spite of the fact that almost every tomato based pasta dish he has eve…

After our experience at Chalet-Swiss, I decided I would go home and make rosti for myself. I felt sure I could match or better what we had there.

But first, some explanation...What is rosti? According to Wikipedia...

"Rösti is a potato dish from Switzerland. It was originally a common breakfast eaten by farmers in the canton of Bern, but today is eaten all over Switzerland. Many Swiss people consider rösti a national dish. Today it is more commonly served to accompany other dishes, rather than for breakfast."

Armed with that knowledge, I woke up this morning and began my quest to make the best rosti I could possibly make with what I had on hand (because I was too lazy and broke to go to the grocery store).

Here's what I used to make 2 individual rosti:

4 handfuls of frozen grated hashbrowns (you could grate fresh potato, but who has that kinda time?)4 thick slices bacon, diced (I used our home made bacon, but you could use regular thick cut bacon as well, just watch the sal…

I have been fairly vocal about the dearth of fine dining establishments around the Alamosa area. I think the best overall meal we've had here in the Valley was at the Creede Hotel.

Because of this, I am always on the look out for that one place to single handedly turn my attitude around- knock me off my culinary feet, as it were.

I haven't found it yet. I had high hopes for Chalet-Swiss, but it just didn't hit the mark.

Here is the one thing I'll cut them some slack for- it was 11:30am on a Sunday. Maybe you have the B team on duty then and they are hung over. I don't know.

We arrived at the Chalet-Swiss after taking a drive to look at fall foliage. As we passed by, I saw it was open and suggested we stop there for lunch. A good friend of mine had suggested it highly, so I figured we were in good hands.

We walked into the foyer/reception area (which was devoid of human life) and stood there. And stood there. And stood there. We peeked through the glass doors an…

After over a month of sweating and fussing, Devin and I finally finished the library at Polston this week.I definitely think it is an improvement over the way it was before. Hopefully, the kids think it is fun and inviting.I could never have done it without Devin. He hung all the decorations and even made some of them.All in all I'd say it's a pretty cool place to work.

I root for the Rockies all during the season because Colorado is my adopted home. But when they play the Braves, that always means trouble. How can I turn my back on almost 20 years of loyalty to the Braves??

I made smashed potatoes which I find much lower maintenance than mashed potatoes. I just boil some chopped red potatoes with a few garlic cloves and a bay leaf, then remove the bay leaf and smash the potatoes and garlic with some butter, a little salt and pepper and about 3 tablespoons of cream cheese.

I also had to use up a few calabacitas I had in the fridge, so I diced half an onion, 2 calabacitas, a yellow squash and 2 roma tomatoes and sauteed them in a little olive oil and red pepper flakes. I added a few cups of sweet white corn kernels towards the end.

And the main course was My Momma's Salmon Patties. This recipe has been around forever. When I was a teenager and had braces, whenever I would get the bands tightened and my mouth was sore, Mom made salmon patties and mashed potatoes.

The recipe is pretty simple:

Weezy's Salmon Patties

1 can red salmon (picked through for bones and skin)1 can cream of mushroom soup1/2 c. quick cook…

We started our Saturday at the Farmers' Market, as usual. The SLV Big Band was playing, which is always good entertainment, so we walked around for a little while. We really didn't need anything, so we didn't stay long.

After perusing the market, we headed out to Monte Vista to visit Home Lake. Home Lake is a soldiers and sailors home. Dev tried to explain how that is a little different than a state veterans' home, but I don't remember what he said.

Anyhoo- it is a beautiful place. There are older buildings there that I would surmise date back at least to the WWII era, as well as modern buildings. Here's a shot of the old pool hall...

I took a whole slew of pics and uploaded them to my flickr page...here's the link to the set.

But by far, the most striking thing on the campus is the veterans' cemetary. The graves there are from the Civil War forward. We saw graves of veterans from the Spanish American War as well.

It's not often that Dev and I decide to have an old fashioned date night. There are several reasons for this (we've been shacked up for over 2 years now, there aren't many places to go here in Alamosa, everything is ridiculously expensive, etc.), but really there's no excuse.

So after work on Friday, I announced to Dev that he was taking me out on a date. I had heard a new steak house opened out between Blanca and Fort Garland, so I figured we'd give it a try. Plus- Dev spent 6 weeks out at Fort Garland this summer at a field archaeology school and learned about some really cool things at the fort I wanted to see.

I took some pics while we were out there and posted them to my flickr page. Here's the link to the set.

Dinner was ok. It was pretty typical for what you find in this area. Dev had a steak and rice and I ordered the ribs. My portion was huge (I have a knack for choosing the hugest thing on the menu), so I ate about 3 of the ribs and half my bak…